The City of Denver forced roughly a dozen people who were camping at the intersection of Logan Street and 17th Avenue Friday morning to move their tents and belongings.
It was the fourth time in four days they'd been moved along.
This tiny community expects the punting to continue indefinitely -- even as they have no idea where they'll go.
It all started after a propane tank exploded at an encampment where they had been staying at 16th Avenue and Sherman Street, near the State Capitol, several of them told Denverite. That triggered the city to sweep roughly 100 people on Tuesday morning. The community who lived there was split up. Pods of people relocated throughout Capitol Hill and beyond.
The group and their dogs stuck together and found spots on sidewalks to set up their makeshift homes. But the city has not let them stay.
On Friday morning, several of them awoke to members of the city's Street Enforcement Team at their most recent spot telling them to leave.
Even as Mayor Mike Johnston tries to fulfill his pledge to end homelessness, spends more than $48 million on his House1000 plan and celebrates new hotels, new developments and new micro communities, Denver still doesn't have an immediate fix for most people living outside.
"While ultimately, we'd like to prevent someone from becoming homeless, and recommend individuals start looking for stability resources prior to, the best advice for individuals who are experiencing homelessness is to connect with homelessness service providers who can assist with housing navigation," wrote a spokesperson for the Joint Information Center handling the homeless state of emergency.
Johnston's promises of housing rang false for the people Denverite spoke to Friday morning, especially after such a tumultuous week.
On Tuesday morning, "somebody gave us a piece of paper that had eight places on it, possible places we could move to," said Brandon, as he packed his belongings Friday morning,under the watch of Denver's SET. "I went to all of those places yesterday."
He and roughly a dozen people ended up on a patch of sidewalk at Logan Street and 17th Avenue next to a fenced-in abandoned lot that has sat empty for about a year. By morning, they were asked to move on.
"These people kicked us out," Brandon said, pointing to the Street Enforcement Team members, who declined to comment about what they were doing. "I have nowhere to go. This is where we ended up."
Where would they go next?
"We're going to the next spot for them to kick us out tomorrow," said Joe, who has been on the streets for three years.
Members of the Street Enforcement Team approached the group, said Lacy Ripley, who has lived on the streets since July. "They just asked us right now, 'Are there any resources you need?' I said 'Hotel vouchers. Or where should we go?' and they walked away."
Members of the SET team declined to answer Denverite's questions.
"They said, 'We're getting the cops and the dump trucks," Brandon said. "Those are the resources they designed for us. The SET team is absolutely useless. Nowhere to f****** go. I'm losing more stuff every time they come. I can't carry everything."
Forced cleanups, Johnston has repeatedly said, do not work when it comes to solving homelessness, though his administration has repeatedly said they would continue doing them for health and public safety.
Events like the propane tank explosion and a shooting on the same Logan Street block in August, have forced Johnston and the city to conduct those ineffective multiple large-scale sweeps and countless small-scale sweeps that were a signature of past Mayor Michael Hancock's administration.
Johnston's regularly met with unsheltered residents. He's told them he's working to get them places to live.
Where? When? How? From the sidewalk, the answers feel fuzzy.
The city plans to identify existing encampments and move them en masse to transitional housing or some kind of shelter. If a person isn't lucky enough to live in whatever designated encampment the city has picked to shelter, they won't have a place to go. For the group that was moved along Friday and multiple days this week, the odds were not in its favor.
"This is crazy," said Ripley. "We're all expecting housing. They said there were going to be announcements. And instead, the sweep team just came and took our s***. And that was it. We had to leave."
